Home School History Fair

[ciroccoj]

One of the few downsides to home schooling, IMHO, apart from the lack of double-incomeship, is that the kids don't get to show off their work very often. Which deprives them of both the immediate ego-boost of seeing their work appreciated by someone who isn't Mom, and of the practical life experience of putting together presentations/displays that will be judged by persons who have no stake in finding their work adorable and special.

Today's History Fair gave the kids that, and (IMHO) went one better.

You know how when schools have Open House events, you get to see 15 dioramas of Laura Ingalls' log cabin from Mrs. Boothby's Gr 5 students, and a wall of "Who Is My Hero?" compositions from Mr. Chang's Gr 3 students, and a table of macrame jungle animals from Ms Rider's Gr 4?

I love seeing stuff like that. I love the variety of ability and interest and effort.

I don't know how many kids were involved in this fair; apparently at least 38 families registered beforehand, and a bunch more showed up today, but I'm really no judge of numbers so I won't go there. I do know that the youngest kids looked about four and the oldest were teenagers. And the projects were amazing. Working dioramas of Pompeii and Roman villas and Laura Ingalls' log cabin. Posters and books and displays, some performance/presentations, and a jar of pioneer molasses cookies for the taking, recipes included.

And the subjects? The Romans, the Renaissance, Medieval times, and megaliths and Al Capone and pollution and Lego and roller coasters and hockey and Greek theatre and catapults and Vikings and King Alfred and cowboys and WWII and Canadian settlers and art and warriors and board games and the Lighthouse of Alexandria and Acadia and Alexander the Great and Nebraska Sky Disks and OMG.

Bloody brilliant. We are so doing this again.

The prep time was extensive and the boys and I were rather frazzled by the end and at one point I honestly thought we'd be better off skipping the whole thing, but they were so proud of themselves, so eager to show off what they'd done, and so thrilled at the response as people asked them about their displays and leafed through their books and complimented them on all of their hard work.



Little Pompeii presenter, complete with Roman garb and hairstyle. She looked absolutely adorable.


Stonehenge


Roman villa complete with mosaic floors :)


Yeeeeha!


Wheee! This included a working model, btw.


Alexander the Great


Interactive art. You could experiment with soap sculptures and printing and all sorts of cool stuff.


Cluster of boys around this one for most of the day


Lighthouse of Alexandria


The volcano spewed ash (flour) and covered the city


From horse droppings to PCBs and beyond


Complete with presentation


Laura Ingalls


The kid who made this also wore 1930s gangster clothes



::happy sigh::

Comments

[daf9.livejournal.com]

I like the catapults, the little Stonehenge and the roller coaster. The large wooden building (is that the Canadian parliament building?) is pretty impressive as well.

[ciroccoj.livejournal.com]

Yeah, they were amazing. The little Stonehenge was adorable - and part of an excellent display, too. The wooden building was the Lighthouse of Alexandria. Hadn't noticed the similarity to Parliament - LOL!! You're right :) :)

[daf9.livejournal.com]

Didn't think it looked quite right for the Parliament building. But I've seen that - I've never seen the Lighthouse of Alexandria.

[ciroccoj.livejournal.com]

LOL actually, neither had I. I'd read about it, but when I saw the model I realized I'd never even wondered what it looked like. It was in Alexandria, though, so I think I had a vague image of a pyramid-like lighthouse ;)

[shiningmoon.livejournal.com]

Awesome!!

[ladystarstruck.livejournal.com]

But which were Daniel and Justin's?!

[ciroccoj.livejournal.com]

Haven't uploaded them yet, because the pictures are full of pix of other people's children. Oops!

Their display was some Roman stuff that they'd made over the last year (their Roman road, a mosaic, and a list of things we got from the Romans), a few Byzantine things (an egg and an icon), and two small books each: "Empires" and "Religions" by Justin, and "The Fall of the Roman Empire" and "Great Buildings" by Daniel. They also wore togas and eagerly explained all of their stuff to anyone who happened to wander by :)

I don't know why...

[culturevulture7.livejournal.com]

...but I find it funny that Laura Ingalls Wilder is popular in Canada. I know, how provincial of me...your frontier was basically the same, but there you are.

I love Stonehenge! Although this brings back bad memories of science fair projects and making those stupid displays, back before computers and displays you could buy at the office supply store.

[lonejaguar.livejournal.com]

LOVE the lighthouse.

[nonniemous.livejournal.com]

That was one of the things I missed most about homeschool, too! I'm so glad your boys got to do this, and it looks like a really fun day!